Dehydrator



March 2,1926. 1,575,000 B. R. RAGAIN DE HYDRATOR Filed NOV- 8, 1924 Ben R-R @Miy Patented Mar. 2, 1926.

UNITED STATES PATENT oFFlfcE.

BEN It. BAGAIN, OF COLUSA, CALIFORNIA.

DEHYDBATOR.

Application filed November 8,'1924. SerialNo. 748,557.

To all whom t may conce/m:

vBe it known that I, BEN R. RAGATN, a citizen of the United States of America, residing atColusa, county of Colusa, State of Califirnia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Dehydrators; and I do declare the following to be4 a full, clear,

. andexact description'of the same, reference being'had to the accompanying drawings,

.and to the characters of reference marked thereon, which form a part ofthis application.

tray without the use of blower Yor. other forced draft means for the K- air. ln other words, Icausetheflow of air tobc had by a natural draft, allowing the heated air to rise as isnecessary to create such a draft, whileinsuring. that said air will pass lengthwise of thetrays.

`Another' object is to.provide"for the easy shifting of thetraysfrom onepoint to another of the dehydrator so that the fruit thereon maybe subjected to 'different air temperatures `at different stages of the dehydrating processas is necessaryto obtain proper and uniform drying of ,the fruit.

A further object is toprovide a dehydrator of a type which may be built in small and inexpensiveunits suitablefor installation in connection with relatively small orchards, without an excessive outlay of money either for installation or operation, heilig necessary on the part of the orchardist.

This is partly because. of the extreme simplicityoffthe dehydrator, and because no 'power appliances or complicated and expensive mechanisms of any character need be used. At the YSametime, while the dehydrator is especially adapted to bermade in small sizes, the number of the units may be increased to provide a dehydrating plant having a capacity lequal to any.

I, have also provided a form of tray-supporting truck-especially designed for use in connection with my dehydrator, and

which is a valuable aid in obtaining the desired results.

These objects I accomplish by means of structure and relative arrangement ofV parts as will fully appear by a perusual of the Lfollowing specification and claims.

In the drawings similar characters of ref- `erence'indicate corresponding` parts in the several` views Fig. `l isa side elevationof the dehydrator, partly in section.

Fig. 2. is a typical cross section ofthe same.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary top plan view of the dehydrator at the upper end thereof.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary perspective'view of a pair of superimposed trays, in the positionY they assume on'the supporting truck.

Referring now more particularly to the characters of reference markedon the drawings, the dehydrator comprises fundamental- -ly an open-ended tunnel 1 of rectangular 'cross section, and having. an upward slant 'from one end to the other sufficient to cause a. good natural upward draftfrom the lower to the upper end being had.. This tunnel is supported on a suitable trestlework 2. At the upper and lower ends ofthe tunnel are vertically movable doors 3 and respectively. Just inside the lower door is aV hot-air rintake or furnace pit 5, discharging into the tunnel at its lower end, while a discharge flue (i is mounted at the upper end of the tunnel.

Extending through the tunnel and laidv on the floor thereof are transversely spaced tracks 7, preferably channel shaped, while similar tracks 8 are supported by the trestlework on the outside of the tunnel. Both sets of tracks project beyond the tunnel atv both ends, a' transversely movable truck 9 being mounted at the upper ends of said, tracks, said truck having a short length of track l0 thereon adapted toaline either with the main tracks 7 or 8, for the purpose which will be seen hereinafter.

The tracks are adapted to supporttrucks on whichl the fruit-trays are placed.

These vtrucks comprise connected side members l1 in the form of skids which slide along andare guided by the tracks. These skids are deeper or higher at one end than at the other as shown, the trucks being designed to .'oe disposed in the tunnel with their highest ends facing toward the lower end of the tunnel, so that the trays 12 stacked on the trucks are disposed with a considerably smaller slant than the tunnel itself.

The trays areof the common type used for dehydrating purposes, and comprise side members 18 connected by a solid bottom 14, and end members 15 of a' lesser height than the sides. Thus when the trays are stacked in superimposed order, an air passage is provided from end to end thereof, and the fruit on each tray is exposed to air passing between said tray and the one above.

.The trays are mounted on the trucks so that their lower ends overhang each other somewhat as shown, this alinement of the trays being had by means of uprights 16 mounted on the trucks at the lower ends thereof and projecting upwardly a sufficient distance to accommodate a vertical stack of trays reaching too near the roof of the tunnel, and being disposed at such an angle to the tray supporting surface of the trunks that said trays, when abutted against said uprights, will have the desired amount of overhang. The trays being all of uniform length, the forward ends thereof will of course be correspondingly but reversely offset from each other.

To force the air entering the tunnel from the hot air pit to pass only between the trays, side and top baiiie boards 17 and 18 are secured to the uprights, which extend thence to the side and top walls of the tunnel with just sufficient clearance to prevent binding. The skids 11 also have a solid cross piece 19 extending across the lower end thereof from the tray supporting or upper edges thereof to the floor of the tunnel. The sides of the trays are about in line with the uprights 16, while the topmost fruit containing tray is just below the top baflie 18. The cover member on said topmost tray may be either of any suitable character, but an empty fruit tray is preferably used as being the most convenient member at hand.

In operation, a truck on the outer tracks 8, loaded with trays of fruit to be dried while at the lower end of said track, is hauled to the top of the incline and onto the transfer truck 9 by any suitable means, such as a hand operated rope and windlass structure indicated at 20. The transfer truck is then moved over so that the tracks 10 thereon will aline with the tunnel tracks 7. The fruit truck 11 is then lowered into the tunnel (the door 3 being first raised) by any suitable means, such as another rope and -windlass structure 2l. A platform 22 is of course provided on the trestlework at the upper end of the tunnel so that the operators can conveniently manipulate the windlass and other members.

At the outset of drying operations, the truck is held adjacent the upper end of the tunnel, for a certain length of time, in order to subject the fruit to the less intensely heated air and prevent its being burned. IVhen this necessary length of time has elapsed, the truck is lowered into the tunnel a distance about equal to its own length, and another truck load is hauled up the ineline and lowered into the tunnel so that the uprights 16 on the latter truck abut against the adjacent ends of the trays on the other truck. Later, both trucks are lowered, another one is inserted and so on until the first truck has reached the lowermost position in the tunnel, which is just beyond the air pit 5. After a certain length of time, the lower door' 4 is opened, the lowermost truckload of fruit removed (being then in a completely dehydrated condition) while the other truckloads in the tunnel are again lowered and so on until the total amount of fruit to be dried has been taken care of.

The air from the pit of course tends to rise to the top of the tunnel, and How straight up along the same and out through the Hue 6. Due to the backward overhang or offset arrangement of the rear ends of the superimposed trays, this rising air is' deected by the different overhanging portions and caused to travel between the trays.

As previously described, the air cannot pass to the sides of the trays nor along the top and bottom of the tunnel, and so avoid the trays, owing to the baffle board structure on the trucks. As the air passes out from between the trays on a truck at the forward end thereof and again tends to rise, it is again caught and deflected by the over hanging trays of the adjacent truck. Since said truck also has the baffle board features at its lower end, the air can only pass between the trays on said truck, before set forth. This deflected flow of the air gradually working upwards, continues through all the trucks until the air finally passes out through the flue. In this manner all the air is positively used for drying purposes, and none is wasted. This makes for efficiency, speed and low cost of operation.

Each truck preferably supports two transverse rows of trays of any desired number. I have found from experience that a length of tunnel having a capacity for not more than four trucks gives the best results, since otherwise the air is in too greatly a cooled and humid condition to be of much value by the time it has passed over four truck-loads of trays.

By reason of the staggered slant of the trucks relative to each other, so that the forward end of one tray is lower than the corresponding end of a tray on the truck ahead, the air passing under the one tray and tending to rise at the forward end thereof, is caught by and passes under the corresponding truck ahead, which it would not of course do if the trays were all on a co1nmon level. In other words, this arrangement keeps the air down and forces it to travel along the bottom of corresponding trays from one end of the tunnel to the other.

From the -foregoing description it will be readily seen that I have produced such a device as substantially fulills the objects of the invention as set forth herein.

lVhile this specification sets forth in detail the present and preferred construction of the device, still in practice such deviations from such detail may be resorted to as do not form a departure from the spirit of the invention, as defined by the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and useful and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. A dehydrator comprising an inclined tunnel, elements for supporting individual and separated stacks of fruit trays disposed lengthwise in the tunnel, and means whereby air passing longitudinally between the trays or one stack will be caught by and caused to pass between the corresponding trays of the adjacent stack above.

2. A dehydrator comprising an inclined tunnel, elements for supporting individual and separated stacks of fruit trays disposed lengthwise in the tunnel, said supporting means being so arranged that the stacks are disposed at a lesser incline than that of the tunnel and with their ends separated from each other, whereby air passing lengthwise up the tunnel between the trays of a stack is caused while so moving to travel down relative to the incline of the tunnel and when at the upper end of a stack the individual air currents from between the diiferent trays will be lower than the corresponding trays of the adjacent stack and must rise to pass between said trays.

3. A structure as in claim 2, in which means is associated with each stack supporting element for insuring that all air reaching the upper end of any stack must then pass between the trays of the adjacent stack.

4. A dehydrator comprising an inclined tunnel, elements for supporting individual apd separated stacks of fruit trays disposed lengthwise in the tunnel, said supporting means being so arranged that the stacks are disposed at a lesser incline than that of the tunnel and with their ends separated from each other, whereby the upper ends or the trays of a stack are closer to the floor of the tunnel than the adjacent ends of the trays of the stack next above, causing air passing between the trays of a stack to be discharged from the upper end of the stack at levels lower than those of the corresponding trays of an adjacent stack and means whereby the trays will overhang each other at their lower ends, to catch the air currents as they rise after being discharged from between the trays of a stack and cause the said currents to be deliected to pass between the corresponding trays of the adjacent stack.

5. A dehydrator comprising an inclined tunnel set at such an incline as to induce a natural upward draft for heated air discharged into the lower end of the tunnel and an element for supporting a stack of trays movable lengthwise inthe tunnel.

6. A dehydrator including an inclined tunnel, elements for supporting stacks of trays in longitudinally alined relation in the tunnel, and means provided with said elements whereby heated air moving lengthwise in the tunnel from the lower end thereof will be caused to travel at a lesser incline than that of the tunnel over certain portions of the length of the tunnel, whereby to retard the natural upward moving tendency of the air.

7. A dehydrator comprising an inclined tunnel, means for providing a continuous flow of heated air `from the lower to the upper end of the tunnel, individual and separated elements for each supporting a stack of fruit trays and movable lengthwise in the tunnel, and bailes at the lower end of each element extending thence to all the walls of the tunnel for preventing the travel of the air except between the trays of the individual stacks in sequence.

8. A dehydrator comprising a tunnel, means for passing heated air through the tunnel from one end to the other, a means for supporting a plurality of longitudinally separated stacks of trays in the tunnel and battles extending to the ceiling of the tunnel from the head end of the uppermost tray on each truck, whereby any air rising to the ceiling between the baiiles must pass along the topmost trays of the trucks beyond before it can reach the rear end of the tunnel.

In testimony whereof I aiiiX my signature.

BEN R. RAGAIN. 

